Newcomers Jam Schools Bond Would Pay For Renovating, Building Elementaries

October 16, 1985|By Elaine Bennett of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Renovating Seminole County's 25 elementary schools and building a new elementary school would ease student crowding and create enough classroom space for about 4,000 new pupils expected to enroll in the district by the year 1990.

The major construction project, proposed in a $105 million bond issue to be voted on Tuesday in a special election, is essential to meet the demands of the growing school system, said school board spokeswoman Karen Coleman. The district this year experienced its largest growth surge in a decade with 1,457 new students.

School administrators project that 6,262 new students will enroll in the system within the next five years, and 67 percent will be at the elementary level, said Benny Arnold, assistant superintendent for facilities and transportation.

If approved, the bond issue would fund construction of additional classrooms, physical education facilities, art and music suites and resource rooms at the elementary schools.

Besides improving drainage, paving and irrigation at the schools, the project also includesabout $54 million for the following projects:

-- $5,342,037 to buy a 15-acre site south of Lake Jessup and east of Tuskawilla Road for a new elementary school for 570 students in grades K-5.

-- $4,482,831 for 21 new classrooms at Geneva Elementary, along with art and music suites, a media center, cafeteria and administrative offices.